One of the responsibilities that was first assigned to what was called at that time, The Office of Facilities Analysis and Utilization, was to perform an inventory, create a computerized and document backup, including maps and small-scale drawings, in order to document all West Virginia University properties that were used by or owned. Needless to say, that the case against the former president, has brought back memories of that very detailed management process.
At that time, the Federal Government Department of Education, the Hospital/Medical Center, et.al., was involved in collecting and monitoring in-depth facilities utilization. In addition to the procedures that were brought to our office by the first Director, William J. Campbell, which he'd developed at the University of Maryland, the Government had formulated a set of codes for each type of facility which were distributed by NACUBO, the National Association of College and University Business Officers.
Our Office was small to begin with: Bill as Director, Frank McGreevy handled the facilities inventory, and I handling classroom management, which had the goal to decrease the number of general purpose (110) classrooms for other purposes, due to a growing shortage of space. Initially I answered the phone because most of the calls were for me. We added a secretarial position as quickly as funding permitted. By the way, through the scheduling methodology and analysis, we ultimately were able to decrease the general-purpose classroom management by 22 rooms.
After Frank resigned, and we began to expand use of the facilities inventory, I became Manager for Facilities Information Systems. As we effectively handled everything that was required, our office soon continued to expand. Space allocation became the most important assignment for me...which was to be accomplished through facilities analysis.
The code above, 110 was the government code for general-purpose classrooms for which I was responsible, with a direct line of authority to the VP for Instruction. I worked on 4 semester schedules at a time at one time--Spring, Fall, 2 Summer sessions--as well as handled requests for use of facilities for other uses, such as for meetings or tests. Also I conducted room utilization analyses and began to implement changes to room requests by academic departments. This activity began my involvement with space allocation--on an hour by hour level. It required me to look at the request from the instructor, the estimated class size, and to match it to an appropriate classroom. Needless to say, this was not welcomed by instructors who might want a specific room or did not want to leave the building where they had their office. but I had the dean's support in most instances, and, if not, the VP for Instruction would make the final decision based upon my recommendation.
I remember only once when I was not able to interact effectively with an instructor. He was a long-time full professor who had for years used one of the few large lecture halls on campus for his one class--of approximately 25 students. This was a perfect example of an under-utilized room that could be more effectively used by those instructors teaching large lectures, normally to freshmen. Although the professor continued to argue, he was ultimately moved to a smaller appropriate-sized room... If I am remember right, I believe the dean persuaded him by allowing the use of his own large conference/seminar room...
Moving from classrooms into the entire facilities management system required that we use the Federal codes to complete all facets of the facilities manage- ment program. The 100 series were primary rooms supporting instruction which included, for instance, lecture hall verses seminar room or, perhaps, an interior video/equipment storage (each room was coded separately and very specifically), 200 covered laboratory facilities, 300 for office and office services...and on and on. Each individual room was assigned a code, together with the square footage (plus a set square footage size for each of the occupants who actually used the spaces--also defined by the government), which interestingly did not coincide with the Architect's Association (AIA). This was important as we then gained more responsibilities for facilities and construction planning.
I moved upward based upon additional responsibil- ities until the highest rank was Interim Director. During that time there was a merge of the University Architect's Office, with Bill, once again continuing as Director. Our Office was now Facilities Planning and Management and covered all facets in managing and planning for renovation or capital construction. Unfortunately, the only architect that was remaining was not really a planner and was not a good fit in dealing with our more comprehensive duties and responsibilities. For example, he was unable to grasp the "why" of the different method for determining square footage for facilities planning purposes and utilization. He was relocated to act as architect for the Medical Center/Hospital.
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The above is just a little of the complexity of the coding system and reporting which was now under Ken White, a former Military Science leader, now in a first-line supervisory role for Facilities Analysis. After being away from the unit, even to the extent of being on another floor, Terry Dangler, my computer programmer, came to my office one day asking that I get involved, I knew immediately what the issue was.
Carolyn was responsible for all reporting--internally and externally. Carolyn was good with details once she knew what was needed. At the time I asked her to do the reports as a new Facilities Analyst, I made certain that I spent time on any new request and went into detail on what we needed to do to fulfill the specific requirements for each request. It was quite obvious that she was unable to deal with a supervisor who knew absolutely nothing about her job, and was unable to guide her. Indeed, there was nobody at that time in the unit that could review and guide this person who handled important internal and external facilities reporting. As I began to discuss office issues with Ken White, it soon became clear that he had made no effort to review what his responsibilities actually were. We had manuals available to begin to memorize the required room use codes. We had all of the scheduling forms and previous reports I had done, and we had Facilities Analysis reports which were used to analyze and study the match of facilities available versus facilities need. It was clear that he didn't understand anything or sadly, could not understand his job description and how to do the work... Ok, I do have to say that since I had self-taught myself for the job, and had rapidly advanced for more responsibility, since I had no choice with the audit assignment given to me by the director, I expected a former colonel to be able to do the same. I was wrong.
There began my having to once again be a first-line supervisor. At one point, I had over 30 people reporting directly to me (as interim director). Many hours were dealing with personnel issues that had arisen from all the changed organizational structure.
I had had NO time to provide an overview of the office as I would do for any new staff member and, in particular, Ken White by the time he was hired. It had been a year with little happening in the unit. Thankfully, Judy McCormick was my replacement for classroom scheduling and reports and I had taught her through my then style of participatory management. Specifically, the first thing I told her was that she would make mistakes. That it was impossible not to make them given the volume of data being handled. Then I told her that if she made a mistake and didn't know how to fix it, to immediately come to me. I cannot remember a time when we were not able to deal with the mistake (or problem presented by a department) with a little bit of brainpower and calmness. Making mistakes was never a reason to discipline, rather to teach and ensure the problem was resolved.
I gather that Susan McCollum, who had been our accountant and, in my opinion, should have been the one to handle all necessary accounting, did get a little help from the other analysts? I have no idea what she did or what was received during that year.
Capital construction which had essentially been the former University Architect's Office, had taken over, most of the available staff, including all of my time, the only person who knew what was required by the former "Facilities Analysis and Utilization" side of the office. More specifically, since Jim Shaub had never made any effort to actually learn or know how to do what I did, while he had immediately taken me away to do capital construction budgeting, he, of course, had no ability to train the new manager of the unit.
Sandy Johns who had been my efficient secretary, immediately understood how to handle the routine accounting activities within the University system. But that did not allow for her not knowing about what projects were funded, at what stage they were, or how to coordinate the construction of classrooms within the pre-planning.
Most of my time continued to be training and working on getting capital constructions back into some type of basic administrative routine. Other than the land use planner, Robert Merow, who knew how to carry through his projects through the entire process, it seemed to me that none of the facilities planners, on the construction side, even with architectural credentials, knew anything about the actual administrative processes for WVU. That included the new director.
We also had two facilities planners within the Analysis and Utilization unit, Lynette and Lisa who effectively handle their jobs, using there drafting and developed planning skills. Their role was to take the work of the facilities analysts, meet with the academic, administrative and service units and put together a set of specifications for each project. For example, if a project was a small renovation of a space which would, hopefully, provide the square footage for an office, some equipment, etc., then the planner would sketch out a possible furniture arrangement, etc. and determine whether the space could be re-purposed. While this was mostly for internal projects, we also did room use classifications requirements for new buildings... at least that was always the plan...
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Sometimes, though, you just want to scream! Although the workload was extremely heavy, we tried to get everything done in a timely fashion...Usually we did. That is, at least, until we learned that Dorsey Jacobs, Director of Physical Plant, was, essentially, sabotaging our Office... I learned this definitely when one of my facilities planners came back from a meeting where she was to go over the specifications for a project. The Physical Plant employee with whom she was to meet knew nothing about our being involved...and had already started the project!
And then I remembered that in one of my meetings with his office, I mentioned that I would be meeting with the academic representative. Dorsey looked at me and said, "I thought Snorek said we would be doing the work--that those people didn't know anything about construction..." (Or words to that affect. Let me be very specific. When I was hired, even though I reported to an administrative director and vice president (Raymond Haas), I was told that I would work/report directly with Jay Barton for ALL academic issues.
I stopped talking. Jay Barton had relocated to a new position in Alaska. I realized that the entire flow of approval was being usurped by the new Assistant Vice President and his Director of Physical Plant... And, of course, I really wasn't surprised, since actually, Jacobs had been playing games since Bill Campbell was hired to handle Facilities... Apparently he saw this as a loss of power. Bill eventually had to start writing memos of agreement about what was decided at meetings, only to learn later that Dorsey never shared information of what agreements were made with his staff...!
To illustrate what actually happened on campus under director of Dorsey Jacobs. I would, in conjunction with the Vice President, get approval for a list of projects that would be for academic units and/or general purpose classrooms. Essentially, at that time, West Virginia University was out of space for any identified need. Say, for instance, a general-purpose classroom had been freed up and was to be converted to a new student records office for a college. It would appear to be large enough and so Physical Plant would begin to plan their work based upon their estimate and opinion of what was needed.
However, during the planning phase which was handled by my office, we may have been planning a totally separate and more secure space for student files which would continue to grow. The square footage requirements for each and every file cabinet, together with the required aisle space to allow a records clerk to actually pull open a drawer and work there for a short time required a much larger space than was left, which would be used for housing the office records staff. (This particular situation is one I created to help illustrate the very real need to "Plan" before construction.)
Another interesting illustration actually occurred in the WVU Coliseum. It was a round building. If you calculated the square footage based upon AIA standards; i.e., wall to wall, it would be assumed that it was large enough for a secretarial office right outside the door of the larger room allocated for, say, head of a department. One key factor caused countless problems... The back wall of the room curved downward to the point that nobody could actually stand on the floor without bending over. What we did as planners of utilization was to break the room down into actual usable space. That space could barely meet the needs of a secretary, did not allow for any file cabinets and also little room for a chair for visitors... Alas, there are many office occupants that have had to adjust to that problem, due to the omission of one of our facilities planners...
So, now, my Office of Facilities Planning and Management was a "do as I say--even though the new director had no idea what my staff was doing and never attempted to learn... An authoritarian at every level, clearly wanting to do their own thing without regard to anything anybody else said...
So, you still wonder why I have PTSD flashbacks caused by the republican party? And all that represents MAGA! The desire to eliminate Affirmative Action, the desire to eliminate ADA, Engineering, Health or any other people-centered improvement because it would cost more for "corporations... was quickly removed... Even the attempt to hold back the congressional approved allocation of money to Ukraine for Trump's own purposes, and for which he was impeached by the House, resulted in no real control to stop the elimination of many issues that had been fought for, approved, and implemented. They were simply...wiped away...
Once the capital planning process and administration was at least established, and had begun to return to some of my former responsibilities, I began to realize that, indeed, Ken White was not suited for my first-line supervisor job. I had to begin the tedious job of documenting his performance... Neither Snoreck or Shaub became involved, even though I had been forced to hire him...
A final note: It is NOT easy to be a supervisor; that is, unless you are an authoritarian personality like our former president who had no problem firing anybody he wished, without cause... In a normal environment, especially in an institution that receives federal funding, a strict process for actually firing somebody must be followed, including warning letters, documentation of incidents and results, legal review...
It was a devastating time for me... I remember one time Ken came up to my office on another floor and wanted to talk about something--I can't remember what. I told him how and what to do. He stood there holding the paper, just looking at me. I asked if he understood. After similar interaction, I remember I raised my voice "Do You Understand What To Do?" He startled and then agreed that he did... Still Standing. I raised my voice even further. "Then Go Do It!"
I remember wondering whether this was how all military personnel had to actually be yelled at before they could agree, "Yes Sir!" I then realized that my preferred style of Participatory management would not work. I had to become the authoritarian type of manager that I hated...
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